One minute Lou is happily employed, with a perfect flat. The next, her home and job have gone. Suddenly she has to start over.
The last thing Lou wants is to move to a tiny Cotswolds village. She certainly doesn't intend to work for curmudgeonly eighty-year-old Edgar Allsopp. But Edgar is about to make her the kind of promise nobody could ignore. In return, she secretly vows to help him fall in love with life again.
Foxwell is also home to Remy, whose charm and charisma are proving hard to ignore. But Lou hasn't recovered from the last time she fell for a charmer. She needs a distraction - and luckily one's about to turn up.
Secrets never stay hidden for long in Foxwell, nor are promises always kept. And no one could guess what lies ahead...
I'd like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and Headline my copy of Promise Me to review.
When we first meet Lou she's on her way to Foxwell to spend the weekend with her old school friend Sammy but before she arrives she has her first encounter with cantankerous octogenarian Edgar. Lou is a people pleaser and has a heart of gold but Edgar definitely pushes her to her limits with his rudeness and demands and despite his accident being his own doing she finds herself driving him home. Over the course of spending a bit of time with him she realises that underneath his grumpiness there's really a lonely old man who needs support. And before the weekend is over she's offered a job...
Even though Lou turns him down as she already has a job she loves as a live-in carer back home in Birmingham and her own flat, Edgar is persistent and continually messages which Lou finds herself unable to ignore. So when she finds herself jobless as her client was going into a nursing home, and then homeless as her flat is being sold by her landlord, she grudgingly accepts a call from Edgar with an offer too good to refuse. She decides to give it a go and become his companion, after all he can't be that bad!
I loved Lou who really saw the good in everyone and was determined to help Edgar see that there is still plenty of life left to live so why not make small changes here and there to make it the best it can be. And underneath his gruff exterior it's clear to see that Edgar was enjoying the companionship and it's only over time that we see that the minor changes being made in his lifestyle bring about a change in his character. Alright he'll never be Mr Happy but he's no longer the surly, rude man that Lou first met.
Slowly but surely Lou encourages Edgar to reconnect with the outside world but it's a four-legged creature Captain Oates, a rescue dog from the local shelter whose bark is almost as ferocious as Edgar's grumpiness, who steals the show and Edgar's heart. They really were a match made in heaven and I loved how both dog and owner felt an instant connection with one another.
As well as the main characters, there's a whole cast of colourful characters that we meet. Some who play more of a sideline part and others who play more of a major role. And like anywhere where you meet plenty of people, some you'll take an instant dislike too and there were a couple I was right to be wary of as soon as they were introduced, and others you can't help but warm to like Sammy and Jess.
Jill Mansell has done it again, written an emotional, heart-warming story that draws you in and doesn't release its grip until you reach the final page.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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